


Replacements

by Legume_Shadow



Series: Echoes: A Peacemaker Kurogane/Rurouni Kenshin Crossover [1]
Category: Peacemaker Kurogane, Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Author Loves Writing the Meiji Revolution, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-25
Updated: 2011-10-25
Packaged: 2017-12-28 06:24:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/988773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legume_Shadow/pseuds/Legume_Shadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Shinsengumi, riding high off their victory after the Ikedaya Incident, are visited upon by three shinobi sent by the Shogun to aid them in their duties to Kyoto and to the populace.  However, it is not just the deterrence of rebel forces that the three shinobi have been sent, but to also investigate a conspiracy that could potentially destabilize the entire Shogunate from the inside-out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First Publishing: Oct 2011. All copyrights apply to the appropriate parties and no profit is being made from this fanwork.

**Chapter 1.0**

_Year: Late Summer 1864_

 

Brightly colorful and spectacular fireworks lit up the night sky as the inhabitants of Kyoto celebrated the Gion Festival with such gaiety that did not even betray a hint of what had happened only the night before at the Ikedaya. Thoughts about the news that had spread of the bloody massacre of several rebel Choshuu forces and leaders did not even seem to have entered the festival-goers’ mind. Yukatas and kimonos in various colors graced the residents and neighboring towns of the area, swirled in and out of Kyoto, and with a crowd of people surging in for the late-night festivities after the fireworks entered three ordinary-looking people.

The three; a man looking no less than about thirty-summers old, a woman who perpetually looked not a day older than sixteen-summers, and a tall young man who looked to be about twenty-summers, kept to themselves, but their mannerisms suggested that they traveled as a group so as to deter any person who had ill will towards them. They carried small satchels strapped to their backs, but no visible weapon was seen on them. Their yukatas were also not as bright or festive as a few of those around them, but did not look tattered or rough as a farmer’s best one usually looked.

“I can’t believe that they are still holding the festival, even after what happened the night before,” the man murmured to his companions as a particularly bright, colorful, and loud firework explosion lit up in the warm night sky.

“Do you not remember that the people of Kyoto are quite hardy, Kai?” the woman stated, though there was a very slight admonishing tone in her words.

“We were surrounded by politics in Edo, Aya,” the man replied. “I had almost forgotten what a normal person behaved as. It is good to be finally home, or as close to home as I’ll ever be.”

“That it is,” the woman agreed. She turned her attention to the tall young man and said, “Please make our report to Okina, Aoshi. We shall see you at our new assignment in the morning.”

The young man merely gave a curt nod of acknowledgment before seamlessly disappearing into the sea of people, as the other two continued down the slightly dusty roads of Kyoto, staying mostly to the sides to avoid drunken patrons and wildly screaming children. They occasionally stopped to admire the fireworks display, but kept themselves moving discreetly towards a specific area. As masters of their art, they could have taken the shorter and faster option of rooftop hopping and running, but with such bright explosions and colors lighting up the night, it was not prudent or wise to do such a thing.

Near the end of the magnificent fireworks show, they finally arrived at the edge of the compound that was their destination. Even here, where it was mostly surrounded by farmland and only had a few shops that were along the main road that led to the heart of Kyoto, it was crowded, with most of the people craning their necks up to watch the night sky display. In the lanterns that dotted the area, the two could see that there were several distinctly dressed samurai standing near the main entrance to the compound. High walls surrounded the entire place, and there was no doubt in the two’s minds that even though most, if not all residents and visitors of Kyoto were occupied by the fireworks, there were still semi-alert guards inside the compound.

However, it was not the two’s intention to invade the compound, but rather, infiltrate and await orders from their new masters. A particularly bright firework lit up the night sky, and without acknowledging it, the two had seen shadows sitting on the rooftop of tallest building in the compound. As one, the man and woman quietly yet quickly moved off to the side as the grand finale of the fireworks show began. They followed a very particular scent that was almost indiscernible to the average person’s sense of smell, though the general smell of Kyoto almost drowned this scent out too.

As unpleasant of a smell as it was, especially when they had climbed over the compound’s walls that the scent hit them full force, the area where human, and sometimes animal, excrement was left was the least-guarded place in any settlement. Time after time, it had been proven by countless infiltrators that no person on guard ever wanted to patrol near such a smelly area. It was no different for the residents of this compound.

Carefully avoiding detection from the patrols around the compound, the two made their way towards the tallest building in the compound and stopped at the foot of where a ladder was resting against the slope of the roof. They could have climbed, if not for a youthful and energetic voice shouting from the rooftop, saying, “I’ll go get some!”

The noisy clamber of footsteps on the tiled roof was short lived as they heard a familiar voice shout with indignity, “Ow! That was my hand, you idiot!”

A few insulting words and jabs were traded on the rooftop for a few seconds before the two below saw a mop of hair and head appear over the crest of the rooftop and then the same youthful voice belonging to the head said, “Uh…Hijikata-san…Kondo-san…”

Several heads, including familiar ones to the two on the ground peered over the crest of the roof, just as the last firework exploded in the sky, illuminating everything around the area as if the sun were out for a brief moment. Before those on the rooftop could raise an alarm, the woman said, “We bring greetings and good tidings from Edo and from the Commander of the Shinchougumi Okita Rintaro*, to you Kondou- _kyokuchou_ and to the Shinsengumi.”

 

_*Okita Rintaro was a commander in the Shinchougumi, but wikipedia does not specify._

* * *

“Sheesh, they were so quiet!” Tetsu exclaimed as he swung his legs to and fro while sitting on the lip of the closet area that was still his sleeping space. Many of the members of the Shinsengumi that had gone out into the city had not yet returned, even though it had been well over a half-hour after the end of the grand display of fireworks. As quiet as it was in the sleeping quarters of the compound, sleep was eluding him.

“They’re shinobi, Tetsu,” a slightly exasperated-sounding Tatsu said, his voice slightly muffled as he prepared the sleeping space for his brother. “They’re trained that way.”

“Yeah, but even Susumu didn’t hear or notice them until I looked over and saw them!” A sudden grin split Tetsu’s face as he gave a slight laugh and said, “Susumu’s never going to live that one down.”

“Tetsu,” Tatsu said, wanting to admonish his brother but gave up and mentally sighed at his antics. “Nevermind…”

“If they’re joining us, at least I have another person my age to talk to,” mused Tetsu as he kicked back and scooted into the closet while his brother removed himself from the small space and stood near the sliding door. “I wonder if that girl is as interesting as Susumu. I bet she and Susumu know each other and she has some great stories to tell! The guy looks too old to be a proper shinobi.”

“Tetsu, just go to sleep.”

* * *

Yamazaki Susumu sat in seiza in silence as Kondou lightly coughed and asked in a sheepish tone, “Pardon me, but just how **old** are you, Matsumoto-san?”

He could almost hear the silent exasperated sigh that the female half of the two shinobi sent from Edo, in his head. Fortunately, Matsumoto Aya was not one to show any sort of emotion like that except to answer in a neutral but clipped tone, “Twenty-four springs, Kondou- _kyokuchou_.”

A bit of perspiration and embarrassment showed up on Kondou’s face as an irritated glance from Hijikata to Kondou was thrown before Hijikata turned their attention back onto the reason the two shinobi were sent here. “No doubt you have heard of the incident at Ikedaya, but by now Choshuu forces have already gone into hiding or fled the city. They will retaliate.”

“ _Okashira_ Machimaki Toshirou specifically sent the three of us after we received word in Edo about Yamazaki Ayumu’s death. We have been tasked to investigate her death and to provide assistance, if necessary, to the Shinsengumi. The _Okashira_ was gravelly concerned about the death of one of our master shinobi at the hands of Choshuu forces. We only heard of the Ikedaya incident before we entered Kyoto, and have thus pieced together that in some way, her death provided the information necessary for the Shinsengumi to flush out the rebels, sir,” Aya stated.

“Three?” Hijikata asked.

“My apprentice, Shinomori Aoshi, will be joining us in the morning after he returns from his task, sir,” Aya politely, but firmly replied.

Susumu kept his expression neutral, but could not help but inwardly shiver. Before he and Ayumu had left for Kyoto on their assignment from the _Okashira_ a year-and-a-half ago, he clearly remembered that a very talented, but creepily quiet ten-year-old Aoshi had just been given a task not normally assigned to trainees. It was a dangerous task, even for a fully-trained shinobi to carry it out, but back then, he had heard rumors that Aoshi was being groomed to be the next _Okashira_ , hence the assignment. If the young boy was now here as a fully fledged apprentice, then Susumu could only assume that Aoshi had passed the first of many hurdles on his way to actually becoming the next _Okashira_.

“Well then,” Kondou said, leaning a bit eagerly forward before Hijikata could say anything else, “Your skills will be put to good use here.” Turning to Susumu, the commander of the Shinsengumi said, “Susumu, please show them to the empty quarters. We’ll start tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir” he replied, and after a quick farewell between the three of them to the commander and vice-commander, he silently led them out. As soon as they were a few footsteps away, he said to the two without turning to face them, “My sister is buried near the small pond in an unmarked grave. If you are here to investigate her death, then you will find not much that is not already known by the _Okashira_. A man reported the beating of a woman who was a hairdresser which led the Shinsengumi to the place where several of them had been hiding. They did not properly dispose her body. Interrogation of the survivors yielded that Furutaka Shuntaro was the one who ordered my sister to be tortured and beaten to death. We arrested him and the information we got from him told us that the rebels planned to set fire to Kyoto and capture Katamori Matsudaira. The Shinsengumi found them at Ikedaya.”

“Susumu,” he heard Kai say, as he heard the footsteps behind him stop, “Ayumu was one of us, one of the best of us. We are sorry for your loss, but the _Okashira_ and the rest of the Oniwabanshuu need to know how these rebels discovered her identity so easily.”

He gritted this teeth and briefly squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as he heard the echoing voice of his deceased older sister whisper old words of advice to him – advice that he had initially dismissed and now treasured. He wished that he could express his unhappiness at this investigation, but to do so would show weakness that was not appropriate for a shinobi. Kai was a long-time friend of his, but there were plenty of times in which their views of the world and of even trivial matters clashed greatly. Susumu wished that the _Okashira_ had not sent them, especially Kai – he did not want them to dig deeper into a wound that had festered and was now trying to heal.

Opening his eyes again, he said, “Your rooms are this way.”

He heard the footsteps of his fellow Oniwabanshuu follow him, but he knew that the matter had not been dropped. He would be amongst the first to be questioned by them starting tomorrow morning, and he was not looking forward to that at all. As they continued, he offered up a small mental prayer to the Gods above, asking for something to happen to divert this investigation away.

However, what immediately answered him was not an answer to his prayer, but a rather unusually welcomed distraction to his thoughts. As the small group rounded a corner of the building, Susumu saw two people sitting on the edge of the walkway floor, their feet dangling over the lip. He was not surprised to see that Tetsu still awake, for the kid was insanely curious, most of the time, not for his own good. However, instead of Tatsu sitting next to Tetsu, it was Okita who was sitting next to the boy.

He had not heard any voices even before he had turned the corner, so it seemed like the two had stopped their conversation a while ago. As the group approached, he saw Tetsu glance in their direction and his face light up, obviously excited to see them.

“Susumu!” cried Tetsu, a bit louder than what people would normally use at this hour. “So who are you guys and are you staying?”

With faint amusement, at the enthusiasm that Tetsu was displaying, along with the dumbfounded looks both Kai and Aya were displaying, he found himself readily admitting the distraction to his thoughts. As Tetsu rushed up to them and started to pepper the other two shinobi with questions, he glanced over to see Okita hiding a smile, and beyond that and into the darkened general quarters area, he saw Tatsu, sprawled out on the floor, sleeping. The sliding door to the bedding closet was open and he could see that the small area where Tetsu usually slept had been rumpled – the kid had obviously tried to sleep but couldn’t.

At long last, Tetsu took a breath in between his questions and it was Aya who bluntly, and coldly stated, “Who the hell are you, kid?”

“I’m not a kid!” Tetsu immediately retorted, his initial shine towards the perpetually-youthful-looking Aya doused by cold reality. “My name is Ichimura Tetsunosuke, and I’m fifteen years old!”

“Susumu, why on earth was this _brat_ recruited?” Aya asked.

Before he could reply, Tetsu exploded into anger, saying, “Brat?! I’ll show you whose—“

Tetsu’s rant was cut off mid-sentence as Tatsu scrambled up and pinned down his brother to the ground, head bowed saying, “Forgive us great masters. My brother did not intend to insult you…”

Susumu watched in further exasperation at the ridiculous situation as Kai started to laugh – a hearty and seldom sound heard around this place. He saw both Tatsu and Tetsu look up, puzzled as to what was going on and as soon as the older shinobi could control himself, Kai said, “You work with some really interesting people, Susumu. This is definitely much better than those old farts at Edo or Sendai.” Taking advantage of the unexpected comment, Kai continued, “I’m sure you’re forgiven, Ichimura-san. Aya is just like that all the time. Don’t mind her.”

Susumu watched in further amusement to himself at the relieved look Tatsu had before he grabbed his brother and stalked back to the general quarters while whispering a few admonishing words to Tetsu. Even after Ikedaya, Tetsu’s enthusiasm still had not waned, and it was oddly refreshing to see and hear that.

“Okita Souji-dono?” Kai asked, his voice becoming a bit more serious than the usual humor it carried, as the shinobi stepped forward and approached the First Unit Captain of the Shinsengumi. “I have a letter for you from your brother-in-law.”

The deceptively delicate-looking Shinsengumi captain got up and received the letter from Kai with what Susumu could only identify as a puzzled expression before excusing himself from the area. The three of them continued on, and as soon as he left the two at their quarters for the duration of their stay, he headed back out into the warm, late summer night.

He could hear the other members of the Shinsengumi starting to return from their partying in the streets, some of them drunk, other quite sober and dragging their drunken teammates back into the compound. Ignoring the sounds, he headed towards the small pond in the compound, far away from the soon-to-be noisy sleeping quarters. He stopped before the pond, letting his gaze settle onto the water as the crickets chirped their nighttime song and a few fireflies glittered in the darkness.

_Sister_ , he thought, _I hope that you are in peace for I am not_ …

* * *

It seemed that the Gods had a sense of humor; or rather no sense of humor, for morning brought an army of people standing outside of the doorways to the Shinsengumi headquarters. They were not an invading army of Choshuu rebels, but rather people who had heard of the exploits of the Shinsengumi at Ikedaya and wanted to join up. A few were also carrying the recruitment signs that had been posted around Kyoto.

The clamor was so loud that Susumu found himself staying in his room rather than even try to venture outside, lest his normal calm be ruined by the chaos. However, his sharp hearing picked up a set of familiar footsteps headed towards where he was currently sitting, reading a manuscript on the book stand, and he looked up, just as the door to his room was slid open.

Tetsu, who was looking more unusually harried and unkempt than he normally was, stood by the entrance huffing a bit in exhaustion. “What?” Susumu asked.

“Hijikata-san is looking for you, Matsumoto-san, and Shimada-san,” the young page said. “He’s by the pond.”

“All right. I’ll retrieve Aya and Kai myself, Ichimura,” he said, getting up. “It looks like they’re having you run everywhere.”

“Yeah,” Tetsu replied. “Didn’t expect this to happen or for so many people to show up, wanting to join. They’ve got me running extra practice weapons and armor from storage to the training hall.”

Without another word, the kid dashed off, going back to his duties and Susumu set off to the area where the two new shinobi had been quartered. Instead of finding them inside the separate quarters, he found the two quietly conversing on the roof of the sleeping hall, while also watching the few strangers that wandered around the area. With most, if not all the patrol out and about the city, there was no one patrolling the inner grounds of the compound. He supposed it had been a mistake for him to remain in his room, assuming that there was to be someone patrolling the inner area.

He was embarrassed at his elementary slip of detail and knowledge, but fortunately, the two did not react in any condescending manner when he found them on the rooftop. “Hijikata-san is waiting for us at the pond,” he said without preamble.

“Such a bold incident has made the Shinsengumi so popular,” Kai remarked, while Aya kept her cool gaze on the horizon, seemingly watching the city instead of the compound.

Susumu understood the implied statement that with this surge of recruitments, there were bound to be assassins or rebel forces trying to infiltrate the group. They had to be careful, and he wondered if the vice commander was going to mention anything about the morning’s events. Without another word, the three of them left the lofty perch and made their way towards the pond. Several times, they were asked by the recruits where the outhouse was, and merely pointed their way towards the general area. Of course, as they passed by the training hall, where the noise was the loudest and with several people peering through the slatted windows, since they could not fit all in that large space at once, they saw Tetsu running back and forth, carrying various objects with him at times.

Hijikata turned from his staring at the pond as the three of them approached, clearly sensing their presence – masking their presence and footsteps would be quite rude to the vice commander, for they were not here as enemies but allies. With a respectful nod of their heads, the three of them stood waiting for the vice commander to say what he wanted to say.

“This morning’s exercise is only the start,” Hijikata said, gesturing slightly towards the training hall. “I need the three of you to help weed out those who want to be here and those who potentially have ill intent and find out their true purpose for being here.”

“Four, _fukuchou_ ,” Aya politely corrected, gesturing to the wall behind the vice commander. “My apprentice has arrived.”

As silent as a cat, Susumu saw Shinomori Aoshi, looking much older than his actual age (twelve), hop down from the edge of the compound’s defensive wall and give a slight bow towards Hijikata. “Pardon my intrusion, Hijikata- _fukuchou_ ,” the boy politely stated, though his voice was marked with the squeaks of someone who had not quite mastered the deep voice of a man yet.

“How old are you, boy?” the vice-commander immediately asked, eyes narrowing in anger.

“Twelve-summers, sir,” Aoshi politely replied.

Hijikata’s bark of absurd laughter was unexpected, for Susumu had thought the vice commander was going to explode in rage against someone so young being here, especially after what had happened during Tetsu’s initial recruitment. This was different, and the next words out of the vice commander’s mouth was quite surprising, as he said, “Do what you will, then.”

Susumu was well aware that Hijikata had no knowledge of just how young the Oniwabanshuu recruited for shinobi training, for most died young in the line of duty. Only the current _Okashira_ was well past the usual age, and that in itself was a testament to their leader’s skills. Most of the Oniwabanshuu’s shinobi graduated from training and were sent out into the field by the time they were fifteen. A select few were declared master if they survived at least eight years of service, most of time behind enemy lines. For Hijikata to be saying such a statement in the face of what had happened with Tetsu worried Susumu a bit, but it was not his place to find out what the vice commander was thinking.

“I will be expecting the report after the moon has set tonight,” Hijikata said and left the four of them by the pond.

“Options?” Kai was the first to say as soon as Hijikata and others who had been wandering around the area were not in hearing range.

“The best thing we can do is observe directly within the new recruits,” Aya said. “I suggest infiltrating Aoshi into the flow of recruits, since he has not yet been seen by people here yet.”

“We can also infiltrate as a part of the kitchen staff and interact with the recruits during lunch,” Kai said, snapping his fingers in enthusiasm. “Who is the primary cook?”

“Ayu was, before she took on the hairdresser mission,” Susumu quietly stated, “Since then, the captain of the Second Unit, Nagakura Shinpachi has been the primary cook. I hope either of you know how to cook because he doesn’t make very good food.”

“I can cook!” Kai proudly said, “It will be my testament to Ayumu’s teachings that I will cook a great meal in remembrance of her. Susumu, your job is to not let Aya near any of the food...she can’t cook for life!”

There was a very mild, yet neutral expression on the kunoichi’s face, but Susumu could see the daggers that Aya shot at Kai with her eyes. He then thought back to Kai’s statement and asked, “Why am I cooking with the two of you? I don’t know how to cook!”

“No, but having two ladies as a part of the kitchen crew will put more of them at ease,” Aya stated.

“I’ll need to change my disguise,” he told them, knowing that it would be useless to disagree with the two, since he did not have another plan and wandering around the compound without a disguise would not give him much information. “I used to dress up like Ayu. It would greatly unsettle the others if I were walking around in that disguise.” He did not mention to them that though he had successfully used the disguise during the raid to arrest the traitor Furutaka, he had seen the unsettled looks on several of the Shinsengumi faces before and after the raid.

“I will help you there,” Aya said.

“Good, then let us get this done,” Kai said, and the rest of them gave him a curt nod in agreement before going their separate ways.

* * *

With their disguises in place and both Susumu and Aya in plain working kimono borrowed from what the kunoichi had brought with her, the three of them discreetly entered the kitchens area near the pig pen, though they made sure they had been sighted by a few passing members and recruits. Susumu could already smell the fresh scent of rice cooking in a large steamer. He saw Nagakura crouched next to the open area where a large pot sat, suspended across two cast-iron stands. The Captain of the Second Unit was currently arranging a few pieces of wood, getting ready to get a fire lit.

“Nagakura-san,” he said, as the short-stature captain turned upon hearing them approach. “We’re here to help.”

“What?” Nagakura started, staring at the three of them, almost letting the log piece he was holding drop to the ash-covered ground. “Oh, it’s you, Yamazaki-san. Why are you dressed…never mind. Glad for the help. I need one of you to fetch some water and to finish arranging this woodpile so we can get the soup going.”

“Will do,” Susumu replied, but also introduced his companions, “This is Matsumoto Aya and Shimada Kai. Aya and Kai, this is Nagakura Shinpachi, Captain of the Second Unit.”

“And Sano’s keeper,” the short captain quipped before giving a hearty laugh at a joke only he understood.

“Sano?” Kai questioned.

“Harada Sanosuke, Tenth Unit Captain and spear-fighter,” Susumu supplied.

As the short captain threw them a grin and returned to his work of chopping up several vegetables, Susumu knelt down to finish arranging the wood pile while Aya took two buckets with her and left the kitchen. Kai gravitated to near Nagakura and began to help him prepare the necessary ingredients for the midday meal.

“It’s so good to be finally relieved of cooking food for the guys,” Nagakura said with in a relieved tone, but then glanced over and frowned, saying, “Wait a minute…why are you helping me and not Matsumoto-san?”

“Asking her to cook or prepare is asking for people to be unintentionally poisoned, Nagakura-san,” Kai said in a good-natured tone.

“A woman without cooking skills…” Nagakura murmured to himself. “That is a rarity.”

As Susumu finished arranging the firewood, he looked around for a lighting source and spotted one near the corner of the place. He silently cursed that he needed to wear the disguise right now, but with anyone capable of walking into the kitchen and his regular presence being unusual in a kitchen, there was no way to circumvent the disguise. His movements were slower than he normally would have liked them to be, but the disguise was not as confining as an actual kimono would be, though he had to kneel a bit awkwardly for most of his tasks.

Minutes later, and with the lighting source for the fire retrieved, Aya entered the kitchen again, carrying the water-laden buckets, to which she promptly asked, “How much should I be pouring in?”

Both Nagakura and Kai glanced at her and the pot before looking at each other and said at the same time, “We’ll do it.”

Frowning with obvious displeasure, Aya set the buckets down and promptly headed over to where the trays and items to prepare a portable meal were. After the water was poured in, and the fire lit and burning well, Susumu was given the task of watching over both the cooking rice and the boiling pot that was soon to be full of soup. For now, they had a limited view of what was going on, but the sounds of those at the training hall could be heard. Aoshi had a head start on gathering information, but with loosened tongues during the midday meal, the rest of the shinobi would match that information in full.

* * *

“Hey, you thinking of joining the Shinsengumi too?”

Aoshi made himself nervously glance up from looking at the dusty ground as he approached the main entrance of the Shinsengumi headquarters. The man who had asked him the question was quite tall though his hair was receding a bit and he carried, of all things, an axe in one hand. The open confidence in which the man walked beside him told him that this person knew how to handle himself and knew how to use the axe as a weapon.

“Yeah,” he said, injecting some of the fake nervousness he felt into his voice. He was slightly annoyed that his voice still squeaked, but at least his nervousness and the fake enthusiasm he would later show would complement it. “There are so many people around.”

“They did do a number at Ikedaya, kid,” the axe-wielder said, laughing.

“I should have joined them when I had the chance,” Aoshi said, continuing to fake his emotions and let the nervousness slide into enthusiasm that he thought a kid would have while discussing what had happened at Ikedaya. Truthfully, he had to admit to himself that he was rather impressed at how the Shinsengumi had handled the incident. “My mom said I couldn’t.”

“Defied her now, did you, kid?”

“Yeah.”

“Good for you kid,” the axe-wielder said. “Have you ever fought with a sword?”

“Some of the locals in my village let me practice with a wooden one before mom and I moved back here, mister,” he replied.

“All right then. I’ll be rooting for you.”

“Thanks, mister!” he said, and forced himself to grin. Infiltration by disguise was something he hated, but it was something that all shinobi had to learn and do from time to time. He endured it, and though most of the time, it was his master who played the enthusiastic young woman, and he either as the younger brother of hers or an acquainted escort, there were times he had been sent on assignments by his master that he had to hold the disguises on his own. He knew that once his voice finally changed to a man’s voice, he would most likely be cast as an older brother or perhaps an intimate acquaintance of his master, and he was well aware that neither he nor his master was looking forward to it. For now though, his tolerance of being an enthusiastic but nervous kid who had defied a mother’s orders to join the famed Shinsengumi was more bearable than what the future held.

“Say kid, what is your name?”

“Yoshida Jun, sir,” he said, seeing the unmistakable widening of the eyes by the axe-wielder.

“Yoshida?” the axe-wielder said, dropping his voice to a whisper. “Do you happen to be related _the_ Yoshida Shoin-sensei or Yoshida Toshimaru-sensei?”

“Yoshida Shoin was my father,” he lied, though he made sure to look around in a shifty-eyed manner before whispering his answer.

“But I heard that he had no children,” the man said, keeping his voice low.

“The pleasures of the whore houses are what produced me,” he stated, spinning his fake identity’s background into a cohesive web of lies, while he injected some coldness into his voice. Vetting a friend or foe was one thing, but he had been given a broad leeway for the assignment by his master and in the overall plan, what he was about to do would fit nicely with the outcome. “If you are a spy for the Shinsengumi, I will cut you down where you stand with your own axe. If you support what my father has passed onto his apprentices, then help me infiltrate the Wolves of Mibu and avenge his death.”

“Forgive me then, my lord, for have treated you so,” the man said, standing back a bit.

“I am no lord, axe-wielder,” he said. “And you do no good in blowing my cover with the way you treat me now. Help me, treat me as you had before, and I shall reward you later.”

“I will,” the axe-wielder said, before fumbling a bit and resumed the silly smile that had been on his face, though now Aoshi could see there was a trace of nervousness about the man.

He smiled to himself – the first of many had already been caught in the web of lies and deceit. He knew that with his fake identity revealed to this man, there was a good chance that the man knew others who were loyal to the rebel forces and would start to spread his story. Choshuu forces may have been driven from Kyoto, but that did not mean the more devious samurai of the rebels had stayed to bide their time and strike. Aoshi knew that he would have to continue to spread his identity’s story around, hoping that he was spreading it to the correct people, but with what he knew about the rebel forces, they would be the ones who had plans in their eyes, even if their faces did not show it.

As he entered the compound, he saw various people standing about talking with each other or doing some hurried practice with the staff or sword, but most of them were crowded around the rather enormous training hall. They were peeking in through the open partitions and he could hear the roar of the watching crowd, cheering their compatriots, along with the _ki-ai_ of those participating in the tryouts.

He spotted a line that led up to the entrance of the training hall and some of those standing in it were holding either practice swords or staffs. Ambling over as an excited kid would, he stood at the end of the line and waited his turn to have a go at the tryouts, though he noticed that he was not the only one without a weapon on him. As he looked around, trying to sense and spot anyone who looked suspicious, he saw a young-looking kid with spiky red hair carrying a few practice swords. The kid was handing them out to the participants, and he wondered how such a young kid had been recruited into the den of demons. Then he saw the bandage wrapped around the kid’s ear, and with the way the kid carried himself, Aoshi had no doubt that the kid had most likely participated in the raid on Ikedaya.

In his wait for his turn at the tryouts, he vetted and ‘recruited’ two more rebel-loyalists to his ‘cause’, and when he was handed his sword by the spiky red-headed kid, he heard one of the Shinsengumi members call out, “Oy, Ichimura-kun!”

“Coming!” the kid shouted back and hurried to hand out the rest of the wooden swords he was carrying before running back towards the training hall.

When he finally stepped into the training hall, the sun was almost at its zenith. It felt more stifling in here than it did outside, but Aoshi paid no attention to it as he watched the person that had been in front of him crash to the wooden floor, thrown back by a rather tall Shinsengumi wielding a spear.

“Well done, Harada-san,” a man sitting in seiza at the end of the training hall said. Aoshi recognized the man to be Commander Kondou. He knew the faces and names of at least most of the captains, the two vice-commanders, and the commander of the Shinsengumi, having seen them around Edo before he had been apprenticed to his master and started to travel around the country on assignments. He knew who they were and what they looked like, but he knew that the Shinsengumi did not know who he was, for when he had been observing them; he had been honing his spying skills and thus had stayed blended within other groups of people for most of the time.

The man that the Tenth Unit Captain had just defeated with a flourish of his spear picked himself up and walked over to the side, allowing Aoshi to step forward.

“Name?” Kondou asked.

“Yoshida Jun, sir,” he said, his voice squeaking.

“How old are you, boy?”

“Twelve,” he said. There was no way he could fake his age, at least not with his voice like it was right now, so it would be the only truth that he would reveal in this whole elaborate scheme.

“Hmm,” the commander said, putting a hand to his chin as he eyed Aoshi. “Perhaps Sannan might also need a page…” The hand left the chin and slapped down onto the thigh as the commander said, “Someone get the puppy-boy in here! I think he’ll like the challenge of someone his age. Let’s get some protectors for both of them, too!”

Aoshi frowned as the wrist, head, and body protectors were laid out in front of him, but he was supposed to be using it as a swordsman. As he put the gear on, he was a little bit grateful that at least he had been taught how to assemble and wear it and at least had been forced to study a few basic moves with a sword. However, he knew he would have to put on a show in order to convince those who knew his false identity to trust him even further.

To his surprise, the kid that he had seen earlier walked in with a bewildered look and after a brief talk with the commander, the kid happily put on the protectors and took up a wooden sword. Aoshi briefly wondered if the commander’s comment about Vice-Commander Yamanami needing a page meant that perhaps the kid was vice-commander Hijikata’s page.

“All right!” the red-headed kid said with an unbridled enthusiasm. “I’m going to show you how it’s done! No one joins the Shinsengumi without defeating me first!”

_Cocky brat_ , he thought to himself. However, it was the opening he was looking for and with the sun at its zenith, he knew that a midday snack would soon be served to all of those in the compound, be they Shinsengumi or not. Loose tongues would be talking about the best of tryout matches so far, and he wanted to make sure that they were talking about this match. It would help his false identity be spread quicker and allow his master and the others to find out more information while they were serving food.

The kid charged with absolutely no set form other than a very admirable _ki-ai_ , and Aoshi merely waited until the distanced closed enough and took a step forward and angled his wooden blade for an upward swipe. He hit the kid’s body’s protector with a crack and dragged the blade up, sending the kid flying back to the other side of the room. Though it had the appearance of a hard blow as the kid landed in a heap on the wooden floor, he had more than halved his strength and speed in executing the maneuver.

“Ow,” the kid said in the stunned silence that had fallen in the training hall.

“Hey, Ichimura, you okay?” Aoshi heard one of the Shinsengumi members ask.

“Yeah,” the kid replied, rubbing his sore backside as he stood up again, took the wooden sword in his hand, and slid back into a ready stance. “That was a lucky shot there,” the kid brashly said to Aoshi. “Next time, you won’t get the same chance.”

“Ichimura!” a sharp, deep and commanding voice said from the side entrance, as heads turned. The powerful presence of Vice-Commander Hijikata was one not to be trifled with and even though Aoshi saw that the vice-commander had his angry gaze on the red-headed kid, the gaze seemed to have extended to him as well. “Come with me.”

“Ah, Toshi, he’s just having some fun,” Commander Kondou spoke up, grinning slightly but that grin faltered a bit as the vice-commander shook his head slightly.

“You should have had someone else test him,” Hijikata said before giving one last glare at the red-headed kid and walked away.

With a crestfallen look, Aoshi saw the kid slink back into the crowds and disappear from the training hall. Even though Hijikata’s anger had also been directed at him, he had seen the knowing look in the vice-commander’s eyes; Hijikata must have discerned what Aoshi was doing just by that once glance. He was very impressed by the tactical and strategic knowledge that the vice-commander had gleaned from that one look and vowed silently to himself to try to achieve that level of mental superiority.

“Pardon me, _kyokuchou_ ,” Aoshi heard Kai enter, bow in deference to Commander Kondou, interrupting the tryout before it could resume. “We have finished preparing some snacks for the guests. Would you and the others like to take a break now?”

“Ah yes,” the commander said, smiling. “Lets do so.” To Aoshi, the commander said, “Excellent show of skills, Jun.”

“Thank you, sir,” he politely replied, bowing. The trap had been built and now, all they needed to do was bait and spring it.

* * *

Being in disguise as a woman and talking to a man was not something Susumu enjoyed doing often, since it forced him to think and act as a woman should, but acting like one in front of so many strangers that were mingling in with fellow Shinsengumi members was…uncomfortable…to say the least. Of course, Nagakura and Hijikata were the only ones of the Shinsengumi besides his fellow shinobi, to know that he was in disguise, but as awkward as the deception was, he knew it was vital to maintain it. Aoshi was doing his part with uncanny ease and it looked like loose tongues were going to be much easier to obtain.

The first he had caught a whiff of the young boy’s plans was when he had overheard a quiet word from a candidate that had an axe strapped to his side whispering the name ‘Yoshida Jun’. He had caught the tail end of a nod of the axe-wielder’s head towards the general direction of where Aoshi sat with the other candidates and had smiled to himself. It was very well known that one of the primary instigators for the rebellion against the Shogunate was Yoshida Shoin, who had passed down his will to his three apprentices, one of them being Yoshida Toshimaru who had been killed during the Ikedaya raid. No one knew if Yoshida ever had any children, so the fact that Aoshi had presented himself to possible rebel samurai as the bastard son of their infamous instigator, and had shown a bit of skill not normally shown in a child, was, in Susumu’s opinion, a rather clever but dangerous plan.

“…so pretty. Nagakura did well in letting you help serve the food,” he heard Harada say. “We need more girls to work here…” It took him a few moments to realize that the comments from the spearman had been directed at _him_ of all people and he flushed red – not in embarrassment, but in anger, though he was careful not to let the anger show on his face. He could not wait to shed the disguise and would rather have wanted to be sent out among the crowds where he could at least be more comfortable in his disguise.

“Ha!” he heard Nagakura say as the Second Unit Captain ambled up to them and said, “What would your _girlfriend_ , Masa, say if she heard you, eh? If you’re always chasing the women around and being so forward with them, they won’t stay.” To Susumu, Nagakura said, “Yamaguchi-san, I apologize for Harada-san’s behavior. You and your friend are doing a good job, and it looks like they’re all starting to finish the snacks, so we’d better start collecting the dishes.”

“Thank you, sir,” he politely replied, giving Nagakura a small bow of deference, knowing that later on, the Second Unit Captain was probably going to give Harada an earful. “I shall begin my task then, though if I also may ask, sir, it seems that my friend may also need some help as you have given me.”

He emphasized the request by glancing over to where Aya was, surrounded by several people who were earnestly chatting with her. Outwardly, the kunoichi looked at ease and was smiling and laughing with the guests she served, but Susumu could tell with the minute movements that she made that she was tense – something about the people she was conversing with made her uncomfortable. However, none of them were candidates – they were all members of the Shinsengumi, and the most vocal of the group that were pretty much shamelessly flattering her was the Eighth Unit Captain, Heisuke Toudou.

He could only theorize the reason that Aya was uneasy with the attention was because of her primary occupation which involved very long, isolated periods and very few interactions with groups of people. This was probably her first mass interaction in a very long time…he tilted his head a bit as he watched her – no, she was not uncomfortable with the group, she was uncomfortable with the compliments they were paying her.

“Ah yes, the shameless flirt,” Nagakura said, making his way over to where the knot of people were gathered before grabbing Heisuke by the neck in a friendly manner and pulled him down a bit, saying, “you’re embarrassing the ladies, Heisuke. It’s only their first day, and we need the help! Don’t scare them off!”

Susumu didn’t pay attention to what the Eighth Unit Captain said in return as he took the trays back to the kitchen. Information collected from the new recruits today was very fruitful.

* * *

“I wish I could have stayed! I had that kid on the ropes! How come the _fukuchou_ wouldn’t let me fight?” Tetsu whined as he kicked his hanging legs up and down. He heard the piglet sitting on Okita’s lap give a noise of discontentment.

“I am sure he has his reason, Tetsu-kun,” Okita answered.

Tetsu frowned, still not happy, though he was suddenly struck with a puzzlement and he asked, “Okita-san, why aren’t you at the training hall?”

“Remember what had happened, Tetsu-kun, when you first arrived?”

“Oh,” he said, looking a bit embarrassed as he remembered exactly what had happened. Just before a rather large group of candidates appeared around the corner of the building, Tetsu heard the piglet whine a bit before he looked up to see the group. “They look lost,” he commented.

“Well, perhaps, as a good page, you should ask if they need help,” Okita suggested.

“Okay!” Tetsu said, leaping off the walkway and hurried over to the group of candidates. “Hey guys!” he cheerfully said as they stopped and stared at him with slightly dumbfounded looks. “Do you need directions?”

“Yeah,” one of the men said, scratching his head a bit. “We’re trying to find the outhouses.”

“Oh yeah, take a right and then go straight down until you’re near the walls. You won’t miss it at all.”

“Yeah, thanks kid,” the same man said.

“Hey, Ichimura!” a voice shouted and Tetsu looked to see the shinobi, Shimada Kai, waving his hand vigorously before gesturing to the pile of pots, pans, and bowls that were gathered around the well. He sighed – his short break was over and as the group he had directed to the outhouses slowly moved off, he jogged off to wash the dishes.

 

_A few moments later…_

 

“Who _is_ that?”

“Don’t know…scares me though…”

“Yeah…he gives me the creeps…”

“How come the damn kid isn’t scared of him?”

“Don’t know…but let’s go…I don’t want to stay here any longer…”

“He’s watching us…”

Though there was a congenial smile on Okita’s face, he heard every single word that the group of candidates whispered to each other as they wandered off in the direction that Tetsu had given to them. He gave a few who looked back at him a cheerful wave of his hand, but he knew that they were definitely uneasy, for after Tetsu had left them, he had focused and channeled his warrior’s spirit in a similar manner to what he and Saitou had done in their friendly ‘face-off’ a couple of months ago, straight at the group of interlopers. It was just a warning to the group that he had understood what their initial intention had been, and it had not been to look for the outhouses.

They didn’t know who he was and he was not inclined to tell them – at least not yet. If any of them passed the tryouts, then they would most definitely be in for a surprise tomorrow at the first practice session. It was that thought, which kept the pleasant smile on Okita’s face for the remainder of the day.

* * *

“Yoshida Jun, eh?”

“Yes, sir,” Aoshi answered, keeping his head slightly bowed as he heard the vice-commander give a bark of laughter that almost drowned out the late-night crickets. With the amount of people that had shown up to join the Shinsengumi, the tryouts had taken almost the entire day and it was only now, after Shimada, Yamazaki, and his master had given their reports to Hijikata, that he had finally gotten the chance to give his own report.

“When have they asked you to meet them?”

“They have not, and I believe a few of them were only here to scout the compound, sir,” he answered. “I have identified all of those remaining after today’s tryouts, whom have mentioned and reacted in the positive sense to my alias.” He pushed forward a folded piece of paper to which the vice-commander took it and quickly scanned it.

“These may be the ones continuing their scouting,” Hijikata said, putting the paper back down on the small desk. “They may also be the ones that will pass on a contact message to you. Watch for it and when you receive it, attend it, discuss with them as you see fit and report back.”

“Yes, sir,” he said, giving a curt nod.

“Shinomori,” the vice-commander said, “one more thing – tomorrow is the start of the basics classes for all those who signed up. I expect you to observe them and give me an update on the skill levels of these specific people you mentioned.”

 

~*~*~*~


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1.1**

_Early next morning…_

 

“Hey, and don’t forget the tofu!”

“We won’t!” Tetsu called back to the tall shinobi-turned-part time cook, Kai, as the three of them, Tatsu, the strangely reticent shinobi Aya, and he walked down the slightly dusty streets, carrying their sacks that were going to be filled with food.

“Man, how come the new kid didn’t get picked to go get food with us!” he groused as they walked.

He heard his brother give a heavy sigh as Tatsu said, “Tetsu…just leave it alone…you’re lucky that the _fukuchou_ didn’t give you a harsher punishment for participating in yesterday’s tryouts.”

“Yeah, but if the new kid’s going to be Yamanami’s page, then he _has_ to do everything that I’m doing or else its not fair, Tatsu-nii!”

“Perhaps Yamanami- _fukuchou_ may have had some other tasks for him to do than to retrieve food, after all, he was woken up far earlier than you,” he heard Aya say.

“I hope he gets the task of cleaning the outhouses today,” he said, imagining how great it would be to no longer do that particular duty, since he was no longer the junior member of the group.

“We’re going to need a bigger place to stay soon,” Tatsu muttered mostly to himself. “And that means more money…which means a tighter budget on everything else…”

“Stop pinching the money, Tatsu-nii,” he said, berating his brother for being such a tightwad with Shinsengumi funds. “I’m sure that with all that we’ve done, maybe we’ll get lucky and some old fart will let us stay in their temple area or something like that.”

“Logistics in moving, bedding needed for the new peoples, swords being made or purchased, uniforms that need to be made too…cleaning…” Tatsu was muttering to himself, ignoring whatever Tetsu had said.

Tetsu sighed and glanced up at Aya, who surprisingly, gave him a shrug but otherwise, kept her face blank of anything she was thinking or feeling. He took it as a good sign that she too thought that Tatsu was over thinking things and grinned at her.

* * *

_Their skill levels are…average…_ Aoshi thought to himself as he continued to whittle away at the wooden practice swords near the entrance to the training hall, having maneuvered and positioned himself in that particular area for the greatest field of view that he could get. Far be it that he was sparring against anyone – his unofficial role as a new Shinsengumi recruit, Yoshida Jun, was to be a general help around the compound. He had not been assigned as a page to Yamanami, thus allowing him a greater freedom to move as he wished to do the tasks he had been assigned by either the commander or two vice-commanders.

Yesterday’s tryouts had worn out a lot of the wooden practice swords and thus to prevent breakage and potential splinters if they were to be used again, he had been tasked to file some of the swords down on some of the ones that were almost at splintering point and fix the swords as best as possible. At least two that Aoshi had worked with so far had to be completely broken in half, but he fashioned the two broken ones into short blades, longer than a tanto, but shorter than a wakazashi…the perfect size of two kodachi.

The wooden floor beneath Aoshi suddenly thundered to life as all new recruits broke into a near-simultaneous exercise of fast-strikes. By the time they were finished, he had counted at least five hundred fast-strikes and as soon as their instructor had dismissed them for a quick break, he looked up at the sun. It was not yet even midday, and many of the recruits looked fairly exhausted. He looked back the new recruits’ instructor, First Unit Captain Okita Souji, who looked quite at ease and relaxed, even though Okita had done the same five hundred fast-strikes as the recruits had done.

Aoshi had to admit to himself that it was rather fascinatingly strange to see the reactions on the new recruits’ faces when they saw that the rather delicate-looking appearance of Okita observing the tryouts in the training hall after midday meal compared to today. He could only assume that most did not know Okita by facial recognition and had thought that when Okita had shown up yesterday to watch, that the perpetually smiling member of the Shinsengumi was one of the rather weaker members who most likely had not participated in the raid on Ikedaya. They had been proven wrong when their instructor had shown up and introduced himself to them.

When that happened, Aoshi could hear the ghost of Kai’s laughter in his head, and could see in his mind’s eye, the older shinobi howling in mirth if he had seen that happen. He always thought that the tall shinobi had a very strange sense of humor. His thoughts returned to the present as he saw out of the corner of his eyes, another one of the three kenjutsu instructors that the Shinsengumi had, enter the training hall after the recruits filed out to get a quick drink at the well.

_Harsh training, but apt to be considered one of the wolves of Mibu_ , he thought to himself as he saw the Third Unit Captain, Saitou Hajime, dressed in the full uniform of the Shinsengumi, obviously returned for a quick break from patrol, briefly talk with Okita.

_Only two of the ones on the list show any sign of competency and Okita has already noticed. The others will still need to be monitored, but I must watch the other two carefully. No doubt that Yamazaki’s report this morning told of two interlopers trying to sneak around last night that those two interlopers may be the two that are the most competent in fighting with a sword._

The primary shinobi of the Shinsengumi had taken to the roofs last night in an effort to watch and see if there were any signs of spying from the new recruits. Apart from the occasional recruit getting up in the middle of the night and stumbling his way across to the outhouses, Yamazaki had reported only two that were stopped when their movements coincided with their heading towards some of the storage areas. They had not been stopped by Yamazaki himself, but the shinobi had alerted the guards nearest to the two recruits and the guards had turned the recruits back. Of course, the excuse that had been given by the recruits was that they had lost their way to the outhouses.

Aoshi had a feeling that the excuse had been a lie.

“Hey, kid,” a familiar voice said as he felt the presence of the same axe-wielding man from yesterday stop as the man’s shadow fell over him. That man was one of the two he had to watch carefully. He looked up as the man said, “Sucks about you being tasked to do this, but hey, at least you’re in!”

“Yeah,” he said, affecting a slightly discontented tone. “At least they’re letting me sit here and watch you guys train.”

“Tell you what kid,” the former axe-wielder said, “if we ever get a break and they let us out for a bit, you should come along and get some fresh air. What do you say?”

Aoshi affected a small nervous glance over at Okita and Saitou before leaning slightly in and said, “Sure.”

The way that the man had spoken his words seemed too deliberately chosen, and he was confident that a meeting was going to be set up soon, though getting the time and place would prove to be tricky. Even trickier was to get the information to Hijikata, but there were ways around it – one of them being through Hijikata’s page, whom he was sure would prove to be a good distractive piece that he could utilize in his overall plan.

 

_Later that night…_

 

“Everyone, due to what has happened in the past couple of days, I’d like to formally introduce you to our new watchers. They were sent from Edo and will be joining and helping us. Please introduce yourselves,” Kondou said.

Susumu watched and silently listened, remembering the time in which it had been he and his sister who had been formally introduced to the formerly known name of the Shinsengumi, Roshigumi, only a year-and-a-half prior. They had not had ten captains back then and the organization was much looser with three co-commanders and various vice-commanders. With his introduction to the Roshigumi, he had been eager to finally do actual work in his trade, and now, he was more the wiser. His fellow shinobi were experienced, and they would certainly not make the same mistakes as he had, but he could not help but feel that even with the current assignment to fetter out the possible spies within the new recruits, their overall duties had just gotten a lot tougher.

He listened in as the introductions were made: Vice-Commanders: Yamanami Keisuke and Hijikata Toshizou. Captains: Okita Souji, First Unit; Nagakura Shinpachi, Second Unit; Saitou Hajime, Third Unit; Matsubara Chuuji, Fourth Unit; Takeda Kanryuusai, Fifth Unit; Inoue Genzaburou, Sixth Unit; Tani Sanjuurou, Seventh Unit; Toudou Heisuke, Eighth Unit; Suzuki Mikisaburou, Ninth Unit, and finally, Harada Sanosuke, Tenth Unit.

Susumu had heard at least Tani Sanjuurou and Harada Sanosuke mention that they specialized in spear-fighting, along with Takeda Kanryuusai mentioning that he was well-versed in military strategies and occasionally practiced some medicine, but none of the others had mentioned anything special about themselves. Overall though, even though he knew those in the room and seen most of them on a daily basis, he was still quite impressed at what the Shinsengumi had accomplished in the year-and-a-half since they had arrived in Kyoto. The chain of command was much clearer than it had been for a while, and with their numbers bolstered, they were definitely a force to be reckoned with.

“Shimada Kai,” the big shinobi introduced himself after the captains had finished. “I will be taking over cooking duties here, and do not have any specialty in my trade. I am twenty-seven winters old and have had twelve years of field experience.”

“Matsumoto Aya,” the kunoichi was the next to introduce herself. “I have been serving in the field for the past ten years.”

“Shinomori Aoshi,” the last of the three new shinobi introduced himself to the group. “I am apprenticed to Matsumoto-sensei.”

“So, pardon me, but you’re not Yoshida Jun then?” Nagakura asked after Aoshi finished.

“I am not,” the young shinobi answered, his voice squeaking a bit. “I humbly apologize for the deception, but it was and still is necessary. If you would refer to me as such until my task is complete, I would be grateful.”

“This also brings us to the new recruits that have joined us,” Hijikata spoke up. “We know that we have potential rebel sympathizers who have passed the tryouts and have infiltrated the Shinsengumi. Treat all of them as you have treated them for the past day. There are only a handful of them that have been identified, and they will be dealt with accordingly. Once they have been dealt with, we will assign the rest to your units. Patrol units should have at least one senior member among every two or three new recruit.”

“Yes, sir,” the entire rank of captains said together.

* * *

_The next day…_

 

“Whew...the Shogunate sent heavy-hitters. Twelve years in the field, ten years in the field, and even that twelve-year-old kid has combat experience,” Nagakura said as he and his companions walked along the streets, out of uniform since they were currently off-duty.

“They finally sent me the woman of my dreams!”

“Eh?!” both Sano and Nagakura said at the same time as the group stopped walking to stare at the Eighth Unit Captain who had a dreamy look on his face.

As Okita started to laugh, covering most of his laughter behind a hand to his mouth, Heisuke snapped out of his dreamy look when he realized that his friends were staring oddly at him. “What?” he asked. “I personally think that Matsumoto-san is beautiful and her Kyoto-accent compliments that beauty.”

“Heisuke, are you okay?” Nagakura said, placing a hand to his friend’s forehead.

“I’m fine,” Heisuke said, a bit irritably. “I’m allowed my own opinions, right?”

“Yeah,” Harada said as the group resumed their walk. “Just don’t come crying to me if she murders you for trying to woo her man,” he muttered. “Kunoichi are bad news…”

“Any ways,” Nagakura said, “I wonder why they sent us those three. I mean, look at us…we’ve just kicked the asses of those Choshuu rebels.”

The group strolled along one of the many crowded streets taking in the cheery atmosphere of the month-long Gion Festival before Nagakura said, “Well, hey, I can’t complain…at least I’m not cooking full time anymore.” Wisely, not one of the others made to comment on that, for the last time someone had commented on the Second Unit Captain’s cooking, things had not ended on a happy note for the commenter.

“Hey Heisuke!” Nagakura heard Sano say and stopped to look back to see that their friend had stopped at one of the vendor booths that had a collection of pretty hair pins. “Stop looking at the stuff. Let’s get going!”

“You guys go on without me. I want to get something for her,” the young captain said, waving a hand at them.

Sano gave an utter sigh of exasperation before grumbling, “She’s not going to accept it, man… Kunoichi are bad news…”

“Speaking of which,” Nagakura spoke up, remembering what he had forgotten to tell Sano a couple of days earlier. “That girl you were flirting with when she was helping us during the midday snacks at the tryouts.”

“Yeah?” Sano asked, looking at him with a hint of curiosity. “You didn’t tell Masa did you?”

“Nah,” he replied, shaking his head a bit. “That girl, she might show up once in a while to help around the place. I’d stay away from flirting with her, if I were you.”

“What are you, my mother?” Sano immediately retorted with indignation.

“Sano, calm down,” Nagakura said, holding up his hands and stepping back a bit as Sano leaned in with a menacing look on his face. “Sheesh. That’s Yamazaki, man.”

Surprise that quickly over took Sano’s face and transformed straight into a horrified look was enough to send both Nagakura and Okita into a fit of laughter as the tall Shinsengumi captain realized what he had done a couple of days ago. A few choice words were uttered by the spearman before he fell completely silent.

“What’s so funny?”

Nagakura tried to control his laughter as much as possible as he said to Heisuke who had caught up with them, “You know that other girl that was helping me in the kitchens during the tryouts? That was Yamazaki.”

The look of comprehension dawned on Heisuke’s face as he realized what Sano had done, having been witness to their friend’s flirting with the disguised Yamazaki. A moment later, he too was howling in laughter, oblivious to Sano’s misery at being made fun of.

“You’re empty-handed,” Sano stated, pointing to Heisuke in an attempt to shut his friends up and change the subject.

“I couldn’t find one that was pretty enough,” Heisuke answered after composing himself.

“Come on, lets keep going,” Nagakura said, and as the calmed down, they continued to walk, enjoying the sights. After a few minutes, he turned slightly to Okita and asked, “So, if you’re not teaching the new guys today, who is?”

“Saitou-san is,” Okita answered with a smile on his face.

Nagakura was not the only one to wince in phantom sympathy for the new recruits. Both Sano and Heisuke had also affected the same look he did – everyone knew just how quick-tempered of an instructor Okita was with students, but Saitou took it to a whole new level. “Ouch,” was all he said.

* * *

_Five days later…_

 

“So you claim to be Yoshida Shoin's bastard kid?”

Aoshi mutely nodded, keeping the glare on his face at the newcomer to their little group hiding out in one of the abandoned buildings in the poorer districts of Kyoto. They had started meeting only two days before, with him, the axe-wielder and only two others sitting in this particular building. The axe-wielder had grilled him about everything concerning Yoshida Shoin, and in feigning a few things that he would not know about the man, it seemed that he had successfully passed and gained at least those three's trust. A handful more had shown up the day after, and Aoshi repeated his story, careful to keep the lie continuous and dared not embellish anymore.

A lie was just that, the weakest thread in the weaving that when pulled hard enough, the entire tapestry would come apart. Aoshi was always careful with his aliases that they had a solid enough background that ordinary people would not be too curious to poke too much, and those that did, would only find information they wanted and nothing else.

For the past two days, though, no one new showed up, and Aoshi finally knew that this was it to all those rebels who had tried to infiltrate the Shinsengumi. And in those two days, they had meticulously planned out how they were going to take down and destroy the Shinsengumi from the inside.

“Eh, relax Genji,” the axe-wielder said, clapping the burly man on the shoulder. “He's all right. Looks more like his mother than Yoshida-sensei, but it looks like he's going to have the height of our sensei.”

“So then, this plan we're taking on, kid,” another spoke up, “I mean, we're all for avenging Yoshida-sensei, but we're only a few versus those wolves of Mibu.”

“If you were true patriots, then the odds would never concern you,” he stated, hating how his voice squeaked with the words. “But, I am not asking you just yet to lay down you lives against such hopeless odds. They are on their guard even after their victory at Ikedaya. We must be cautious and they are suspicious. Henceforth we will not be meeting like this ever again.”

“Then when do we know we're to carry the plan out?”

“You will know in due time.”

The dismissal in his tone was evident and as the men gathered themselves and made their way out, Aoshi heard the first person to reach the door say, “What the devil is going on?”

“You are all under arrest for collaborating against your Shogun and Emperor. Come quietly with us. Resist and we will show no mercy,” Aoshi heard the clear, authoritative voice of the First Unit Captain say.

“Try not to make this into another Ikedaya...that was just a mess to clean up,” the languid voice of the Second Unit Captain quipped immediately after.

Aoshi smiled to himself – both sides of the conflict were emotionally charged, with one wanting revenge, and the other high off their victory, but it seemed that the Shinsengumi were more level-headed than the rebels and thus had emerged as the victor to this game he had played with the rebels. Such as it was those who were weak. Strength was in the victor, and Aoshi considered himself the strongest.

He could hear the uncertainty in the men's voices as they looked at each other and then turned their gazes towards him. He gracefully picked himself off the ground, while taking the two wooden kodachi he had fashioned out of two broken bokken from practice. A few of the men were armed, but most of them had not even bothered to bring their swords with them, seeing that this was merely a meeting, and they had not wanted to draw attention to themselves to any watchers.

Even before the first of the rebels could reply to the declaration, Aoshi had fallen into his most familiar and comforting move, Ryuusui no Ugoki and _flowed_ quickly around those with weapons, knocking them out with Jissen Kenbu. In less than five seconds, all of those with weapons, including the axe-wielder, were out cold on the floor. Had Aoshi had his kodachi with him, they would have been dead.

“Its him! It was that kid, Yoshida Jun!” one of the more cowardly members of the rebels stuttered as the rest of the rebels gawked at what exactly he had done. They didn't know if it was their cue to go quietly or had he, Aoshi, had betrayed them. At least one of the rebels thought it was a betrayal and thus had pointed him out.

“Yeah! That kid asked all of us to meet here! He's the one you want to arrest!”

Cowards.

“Yoshida Jun?” he heard the faint voice of the Second Unit Captain say in puzzlement. “Never heard of him.” In a louder voice, the Second Unit Captain said, “Hey, Shinomori, is this all of them?”

Aoshi nearly rolled his eyes in exasperation and answered, “Yes, sir.”

Fear blossomed in the eyes of the remaining rebels as they stared at him before looking towards the entrance. Cowards, all of them, and they proved that when one of the rebels called out, “We surrender.”

It took a while, but eventually all the rebels were led out and away with ropes tied around their ankles and wrists, save for those who had been knocked out by Aoshi. As soon as the place was emptied, Aoshi stepped out into the sunlight, squinting a bit before letting his eyes readjust. He wasn't disappointed in the fact that no blood had been shed, but at least the rest of the rebels had surrendered without a fight.

He felt a pat on his back as he glanced over to see Nagakura remove his hand as the Second Unit Captain said, “Good job, kid.”

* * *

“Geez, we definitely eat too much.”

“We have a lot more people than before, Tetsu,” Tatsu said. “We might as well start renting a cart just to drag back more food so we don’t have to with these sacks every day.”

Before Tetsu could reply to his brother’s comment, the three of them, Tatsu, Aya, and him, heard a rather large commotion ahead on their way back to the Shinsengumi headquarters. Their sacks were laden with food for tonight’s and tomorrow morning’s meals. Men and women were murmuring in fear and surprise as they stood to the side, and soon, Tetsu saw what the commotion was about. The three of them hurried to the side of the street they were traveling on as a patrol unit of Shinsengumi with prisoners tied in a line together trailing after part of the patrol unit.

“Hey,” Tetsu said out loud, “I recognize those people—“

“Tetsu, quiet,” his brother harshly cut in as the three of them saw Nagakura and Okita pass by them without a glance at them or anyone else for the matter.

It was not the captains that Tetsu had recognized as he saw the familiar faces of several of the new recruits that were being tied up as prisoners. What was going on and why had they been arrested?

It was not until the crowds returned to walking the streets after the Shinsengumi patrol unit had left that Tetsu was startled and nearly dropped his sack of food when he heard a familiar voice say, “Sensei.”

He and Tatsu turned, but before he could say a word, he heard Aya calmly say, “Aoshi. I see that your task is complete.”

“It is, sensei,” the tall, lanky kid said, his voice squeaking a bit.

“Huh?” he managed to say, interrupting the conversation. “Who?”

“This is my apprentice, Shinomori Aoshi,” Aya said, giving a simple explanation.

“Wait…so you’re a watcher too?” he asked, confused as to why the bratty, upstart, twelve-year-old kid had initially introduced himself as ‘Yoshida Jun’ instead of his real name.

“Yes,” the boy answered in a very condescending tone, as if it was extremely obvious that he had to have been stupid enough to have missed it.

“You pickled-cabbage headed idiot!” he shouted as he realized why exactly he had been given a lot of the work that the supposed ‘Yoshida Jun’ was supposed to have done in the past few days. “You dumped all that work on me just so you could go play hooky and hang out with those guys!”

He saw the boy raise an eyebrow; Tetsu’s rant having absolutely no affect on him what so ever. It made him even more incensed but the next words out of the boy’s mouth stopped him from ranting even more as the boy said, “If I help you with your tasks for the next few days, will we be able to call it even, Ichimura-san?”

“What? Really?!” he cried. “That would be great!”

“That does not give you the right to slack off, Tetsu…” Tatsu spoke up, shaking his head a bit in exasperation.

“Tatsu-nii…” Tetsu said in annoyance as he glanced up to glare at his brother, missing the nod of approval that Aya had given her apprentice for a job well done.

* * *

_Night…ten days after the arrival of the ‘replacements’…_

 

The summer crickets chirped loudly as they sang their songs near the pond. The koi in the pond were already sleeping and despite the temptation to throw a pebble into the pond to wake them up, Susumu kept the pebble from leaving his fingers. He was sitting next to the almost unobtrusive mound that was already being slowly covered in new grass sprouts and flowers.

“We’re not trying to replace her, Susumu,” he heard Kai say as he turned around to see the shinobi stop before crouching down, staring at the mound. “We just want to know how it happened.”

“I should have been the one to take her place,” he quietly said after a few minutes of silence. “It should have been me. I dressed up as her too many times and visited Furutaka Shuntaro too many times. I got caught by three Fuuma shinobi, a foreign kunoichi, and even by that bastard Yoshida Toshimaru. It should have been me who died, not her.”

“Foreign kunoichi?” Kai questioned.

“She’ll no longer trouble us,” he answered. “She said that her compatriots of the Fuuma clan left her. I think they knew what was about to happen to Yoshida and his group at the Ikedaya.”

“That’s troubling…the Fuuma clan are known for their virulently staunch stance against the Shogunate,” his friend answered. “They hire out for the most money, but only to anti-Shogunate forces who can afford their prices.”

“Perhaps they received a better offer.”

“No,” Kai said in an absolute tone. “Before my brother was killed, he intercepted and copied correspondence between the Fuuma clan leaders and the Choshuu forces – they were paying them a very hefty sum to stay loyal and Fuuma clansmen were even dying in the wake of the skirmishes between Shogunate forces and Choshuu forces. The three Fuuma shinobi should not have abandoned Yoshida and his group.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, turning back to face the pond. “It should have been me, not Ayumu.”

“If it doesn’t matter, then why have you not committed seppuku yet?” the voice of Aya said from behind him, causing him to turn around, slightly angry at her words. The kunoichi sat down on the grass and gave him a hard stare. “You keep saying that you failed, that you made mistakes. You know the scriptures of the Shinsengumi, their five cardinal rules. Yet here you are, still alive.”

“Because I…we are not samurai,” he answered. “We are shinobi.”

“Yes, that we are,” Aya said in a softer, less confrontational tone. “We rarely get second chances. But when we do, we learn from our mistakes so that we never do it again. Your sister took it upon herself to ensure that you stayed alive so that you could learn from your mistakes that you’ve made and that you can continue your work.”

“Take the second chance that Ayumu gave you, Susumu,” Kai said. “Take it and honor her memory.”

He sighed, understanding his friends’ words and at long last, he glanced over at the mound and said, “I will.”

 

~*~*~*~


End file.
